Bad boys, what’cha gonna do? Make a Facebook page.

Every Labor Day holiday weekend, the West Indian American Day Parade makes its way through the streets of Brooklyn. And every year, the borough calls New York City’s finest to help with crowd control. Problem is, parade duty isn't on the top of the police to-do list. Before this year’s parade, some cops decided it would be a good idea to complain about parade duty on Facebook.
The post and its comments are gone now, so don’t bother looking, but the New York Times peeks into what some cops really think:

...some of the people who posted comments seemed emboldened by Facebook’s freewheeling atmosphere. “Let them kill each other,” wrote one of the Facebook members who posted comments under a name that matched that of a police officer.
“Filth,” wrote a commenter who identified himself as Nick Virgilio, another participant whose name matched that of a police officer. “It’s not racist if it’s true,” yet another wrote.
The officers were at times spurred on by civilian supporters and other city workers, including members of the Fire Department, an analysis indicated.

The Facebook group, which was public for a time, came to light during the recent trial of a pre-dawn arrest before the 2010 parade.
Fred Flintstone tells me that people have been complaining about their jobs since the beginning of time, so yeah, it happens; although if these reports are true somebody is going to get way more than their hours at the quarry docked.

About the author

Marc Sanchez is the technical director and associate producer for Marketplace Tech Report where he is responsible for shaping the sound of the show.